Spinipulation (U-berlin) is here at last!

A week long workshop with some of the finest teachers known to spinkind, in the fantastic world-reknowned Katakomben space. While it’s not a formal Uberevent as such (hence ‘Spinipulation (U-berlin)’ ), it is sharing many of the ideals, ideas and fantastic tutors of the past Ubers, and is being run by the outstandingly talented Eimhin, who was the third person to book a space on the first ever Uberstaff, back in 2005. If you want your spinning, movement and manipulation to improve so far that you won’t recognize yourself afterwards, this is going to be the best thing in the world. Ever.

So – here you go:

Five days of first rate ‘spinipulatory ‘ brain-melt from some of the finest in the genre. This time round there are some new faces, some old, on the teaching line-up bringing the latest in spin to the Katakomben, Berlin. The space is perfect, five rooms with 8m ceilings, mirrors, a chill-out room, free internet, the Kata-café, a (super cheap) sleeping hall , shop (now stocking Gora-Toys grin ), and all of this right next to the beautiful Victoria Park, spacial proprietor of the highest point in Berlin ! It is among these perfect environs that we will be running five days of dimension shifting workshops in Club-Swinging (Valery from France), Staff its plurals and etc.’s (Rob ‘Bluecat’ Thorburn and Meghan Claire Pike), Poi (Ronan McLoughlin), Meteor (Andy House), and Movement and Body-bits (Eimhin…from Ireland). Spinipulation (U-Berlin) will be in the here and now, Monday September 7th to Friday the 11th running from 10am daily teaching classes of the Uber variety to spinners everywhere. Classes will be tailored for those of the intermediate, to advanced, to Uber level... adventurous beginners welcome

Sadly due to injury and family commitments I won’t be there, but I am assured someone much better than me is being lined up to teach in my place tongue

As far as I know, the cost for the week is approximately €140 + the katakomben space fee, but they will be able to give you a more exact fee when you contact them. If you think this is expensive, take a look at what you would pay for a week long workshop in pretty much any other artistic/circus discipline, and you will find that for the quantity and quality of teaching, this is extremely competitive, and I assure you that you won’t feel hard done by at the end of the week…

If you want to book, please use the katakomben website (www.jonglierkatakomben.de) for booking, and enquiries should be directed through them too, not at me – in this case, as I am no longer going to be there unless something very surprising happens, it’s not so sensible for me to be answering questions, though I’ll try to help as much as I can....

...And here are some of the workshops that may be on offer (subject to change). Some have more info than others, and some may not be taught if they can't be fitted in suitably and synergistically with the rest, or if the teacher is already doing a million an one other w'shops....:

the format of how they are written is a bit strange, cause i have taken them from several different people, but I hope that its understandable smile

CLUBS

Club swinging basics : Antispin & isolation
Club fishtales : beginners
Club fishtales : double/variations etc etc
Contact club : basic moves for people to develop their own research + some manipulation.

(although there is not a lot of info here, I can assure you that vals workshops are absolutely top notch, and that if you ever wanted to get good at clubswinging you will love these)

POI

- Hybrids (The patterns, effects and illusions made possible by
combining different ways of spinning, or “driving styles” with each
hand. Extensions, isolation, antispin, pendulums, and their
relationship with different timings and directions)

- Thinking outside the circle (Looking at poi in terms of object
manipulation as opposed to firespinning. Trying to break away from
limiting preconceptions of what is possible with poi and looking at
the whole prop for new inspirations in movement. .Including contact
poi, shapes and constructs, right angles, ….)

- Powerflowerpower (Exploring advanced flower patterns. Spin and
antispin patterns, linear isolation and extension, adding different
effects, feelings and illusions to your flowers)

- Just letting go (Throws and releases.Finding new freedom by being
able to let go at any moment. Basic throw theory, flats, whip catches,
wrap releases, throw combos)

- Stalls (How to stop your poi. Exploring stalls in different
patterns. Basic stalls, stalling and direction change, anti spin
stalls, floats, etc)

METEOR

Single Meteor Basics
Meteor is the art of swinging two weights that are connecte by one rope. In this session one will explore the basic patterns that can be sustained and how to transition between them. Namely - Weaves, Butterflies, Stalls & Deviltails.

Meteor 2:
In this class those of you who already have expeience with a meteor will have the chance of deepening the knowledge and sharing what we know. Passing among each other, complex stalls and different forms of turning will be adressed.

Double Meteor
For those who are comfortable with spinning a meteor in either hand this workshop will explain the next level of combining two meteors. Just like two Poi swung at the same time fall into certain "preffered" patterns so do two meteors.

Throwing a Meteor
Meteor throwing is a beautiful way of exploring momentum and energy. For example can a meteor be tossed into incredible heights without movement of the body. Using the charge is has in its movement. Ill show you how to apporch throwing a meteor from barely letting go to high tossing and discuss the two different categories and why they are related (Butterfly and weave tossing)

MOVEMENT AND THEORY

Rotation und Swinging
There are certain relationships when turning the body and swinging an object at the same time. Continuous turning changes the physics of the system the spinner is facing. This workshop wil give some background knowledge on what relationships exist and how they effect and alter the Pois behavior.
Get ready to get dizzy!!!

Sufi spinning in the four orientations
*Anti-Spine
*Quadrature
*Polygon Stepping
*Body Proportion (Circle and Square)
*Working with shapes built on personal proportions
*Body Isolation
*Finding the Body/Object mean
*Rhythm and Melody - Musicality
*Incorporating the Body/Object interaction in the Four Timings
*Concept of Symmetry Shape and Reverse-ability
*Movement with the Body/Spirit interaction en-trance

Name: Simple Movement Workshop for Manipulators.

Bring: Something

Ever seen a pretentious european juggler? No? Oh you're missing out,
but worry not, now you can learn to move like one. Using some simple
non-scarey movement games to loosen up your movement, and then
incorporating that with your prop of choice, ending in a simple short
completely unique routine that you can build on in the future, as well
as an increased understanding of how to move your body.

Learning Theory.

Bring: Something

How to learn more efficiently, easily, and with the best technique.
This workshop will start with some obvious (to me) advice about how to
make learning easier. It will cover more stuble and unobvious tips and
then onto more specific techniques and ways to structure your
practise. Then evolve into a sharing of techniques and question
answering session. This is general advice and can be applied to any
prop. (And it was all from different sources, some juggling, some
spinning, some music etc.)

Movement for geeky spinners.

Bring: Teddy Bear / your safety prop.

Ever felt shy about moveing while spinning? Well this workshop is for
you, maybe. It's about breaking down turns and foot movements into
systems and practising them. Don't worry, there's no ballet in this
workshop, but there will be pirouettes and some 'warm up' games. There
will be ways of getting to the ground, upperbody control, and some
building on top of Yuta's pirouettes.

STAFF/S

Basics of Isolation and Anti-Spin and Hybrids.

Bring: Doubles

Teaching anti-spin doubles patterns and isolation patterns, how to
move between patterns in each family and how to move between families.
The class will also move into basic hybrids involving isolation and
anti-spin. Students should be familiar with anti-spin with one staff
and do one or so anti-spin patterns with doubles.

Contact Doubles.

Bring: Contact / Long Doubles.

Staff on Staff Contact style doubles. Teaching the fundamentals of
this style, where one staff is used to support the other. Entances and
exits and foundation moves in this style will be taught. Various other
contact doubles patterns most of them very old school, some of them
very difficult will also be taught. There will be an emphasis on
symmetry of movement and learning everything both ways for a balanced
style.

Adding Movement to Contact

Bring: Contact Staff

Discussing some theory of Contact Staff, controlling your posture
during contact and learning how much extra movement you can put in
while still successfully completing the contact movement. Adding
character to your tricks and working on good footwork. This workshop
will help you to work on your individual style while doing contact.
Then moving on to some groundwork to add some level changes to

Inside Planes.

Bring: Short doubles, 1.1m or less. (4ft or less approx. Less is better.)

Short staffs! Inside planes, inversions, horizontal, inside anti-spin
and isolation, and other tomfoolery that you can only do with short
doubles. (1.2m im my maximum length, 1m or less is good if you have
short arms, or are short, or just want to make it all easier.)

Name: chuu chuu snakes and other r-type hybrids.

Bring: Doubles

Teaching chuu chuu's like you've never been taught chuu chuu's before!
yays! Well, teaching chuu chuu's from the ground up, till your arms
get confused, then teaching you more chuu chuu's till your brain gets
confused, then teaching you some r-type flowers till your brain goes
into meltdown and your shoulders hurt more than doing handstand
pushups. Sweet!

Name: Contact Passing.

Bring: Contact Staff

Passing various contact moves between people. Requires you to solidly
have a lot of contact moves in BOTH directions. (For at least one of
the people in each pair...) Teaching you you ways to pass contact
moves between people generally utilising one staff per pair, working
up to two person with some movements.

Name: Introduction to Staff Passing.

Bring: Light, Short, Throwable Doubles. (hopefully with Rob)

A gentle introduction to staff passing. Working up from one to four
staffs. You will need doubles, preferably light ones for this
workshop. Teaching the basics of passing four staffs, but we'll get on
to some cool stuff, like high low shower and butterfly passes. It will
require a partner, but if you don't have one, we'll give you a free
one when you get to the workshop.

Advanced Contact

Bring: Contact Staff

All the difficult contact you never thought you'd be able to learn,
broken down and taught to you in the easiest way I have yet learnt.
Teaching Angel roll variations, matrix variations, steve variations,
luceros and the like.

Understanding Contact - Paths around the body.

Bring: Contact Staff

Developing a framework for understanding contact and how it relates to
your body. A bit of a theory heavy workshop about the many paths
around your body that the staff can take, how to manipulate and change
the paths, how to take the same path in many ways and how to extend a
path in unexpected ways. This is a workshop to challenge and inspire,
and hopefully some entirely new movements will be produced.

Double Staff Isolationism and Theory

Bring: Tiny Doubles - iso sticks / magnetic batons / pich sticks

Double staff is a lot of waving your arms around sometimes. This
workshop is about the four different ways to wave your arms around,
then adding in staffs into those patterns, in isolation, anti-spin
then both, then some theory about how transitions between anti-spin
and isolation work. Then some quartertime and grid patterns. And then
finally how this relates to normal splittime/sametime terminology and
whether those terms make any sense in a purely wallplane spinning
environment.

All the Pretty Spinny Stuff (doubles)

Bored of isolation and anti-spin? This workshop is about those
old-school spinning flowery double staff moves that look great done
fast with fire. Spin flowers, flower turns, spinny waistwraps,
butterfly weaves, cogs, transitions between all of those and other old
school goodness.

Duo Doubles Patterns, or Double Doubles Patterns

This workshop is about 2 person double staff patterns. Both pattern
where you are in a 'line' (tunnel) or side by side or back to back or
whatever. Yes, it's geared towards cool tricks for duo doubles
routines. It will involve many anti-spin and isolation patterns so
it's not for beginners.